You know the drill. Post 'em.
Last shot at glory for the year.
"He conquers who endures" - Persius "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel
http://ncstake.blogspot.com/
Not a race, but I will see if I can break 2:00 at the Ugly Christmas sweater Half Marathon run on Dec 13th. I aim really high these days.
In keeping with the name, There has been some ugliness between two running groups (or maybe just between two runners) who each claim they are the real Charlotte Running groups, and if they can call this the CRC run.
My second big race of the year (after Spartathlon): Desert Solstice Invitational 24 hour, 12/19-20.
Goal is to make the US 24-hour team, but I won't know for a year whether I have. Unfortunately World Championships have gone to every other year, so this would be the team for 2017, and qualifying is open until January 2017. But I think this will be my best shot.
Minimum qualifying standard is now 140 miles (up from 135 previously), but they only take the top 6 people. I think it will probably take 150+ this time to make the team. So, I'd better run 150+. My one other attempt at 24 hour, over New Years 2014/2015, I ran 139.5. Just missed the 2015 team, dammit.
This race is on a track, which will be a new thing. I've been doing lots of long runs on tracks lately, practicing pacing, logistics, and mindset. I think I'm ready.
Other goals: US 50+ track 24-hour record, 144.623 miles, and (long shot) world 50+ track 24-hour record, 153.845 miles.
Best of luck Bob.
CR thanks for taking the December race thread as well as the November thread.
Put me down for two races ...
12/5 Bah Humbug 5K San Ramon, Ca 5K (duh) Goal - 18:59 If I do it (and it's a long shot) it would be the first sub-19 is a couple years.
12/12 USATF Nat Club XC C'ships San Francisco 10K Goal - beat my time from the PA Championships (41:53)
Jeshh.. Bhearn.. I don't think I can do anything for 24 hours. I wish you the best of luck.
Ken.... Nationals!! Pretty nice. It should be a great time.. What am I doing you ask? Going to see "Good Dinosaur" for a four-year-olds birthday.
I should be racing a 5k on Dec 19th.. Just with my cross country friends on the track. It should be fun. Sub 1630 if I don't eff it up.
And we run because we like itThrough the broad bright land
Hey HEY HEY!!! Sub 41 for my 10K race?! That would take a fricking miracle!
Hahahaha. People are reading but C'mon man. Its the Hurtlocker. Come back with your shield or on it.
Awright ... I already wimped out on one XC race a few weeks ago. I'll do my best kill myself to get 41.
Bah Humbug expresses my feelings perfectly. Yesterday's 5K wasn't to be a sub-19, though the weather and course were about perfect. High 40's, no wind. Ran 19:13 but it was a good 19:13 if you know what I mean. I didn't go out too fast but relied on the volunteers calling splits for my 'markers'. I wanted to get to mile 2 at 12:15 or better and then let the chips fall after that. When I passed the 1 mile mark I heard them call out 6:04 - great, perfect! - then at the 2 mile mark they call out 11:45! Me being I guess optimistic (or maybe just plain dumb) thought "woohoo, I GOT THIS SUCKAH! Must be MY day! Just relax and don't do anything dumb and the sub-19 is in the bag." Unfortunately, they had the 1 and 2 mile markers short and when I got to 3 the time I heard told me I had no shot. I still picked up the pace and ran hard to the finish. I feel certain if I'd used my own watch (which I will next time) I would have been a lot closer to 19, probably not under but certainly less than 19:08 or so.
I want another shot!
Splits (GPS) - 6:14, 6:20, 6:11; 32 seconds (Nice one loop course, 2nd mile had some very slight downhill component and 3rd mile had the same in the uphill direction). Consolation prize: did get 1st in my AG and my buddy who drove up with me took 1st in his AG (65-69).
haha.. nice story Ken. Too bad about the mile markers being off. It seems that happens quite often. I, also heard that PA Champs was closer to 10,200 meters. IDK.. its hard to do it right.
The course was long (by my estimation about a minute long). Even though it's XC I still like to compare my times to previous years. Wonder if they will adjust the course back to 10kM for this Saturday's race? If they do then that 41 minute time that CR signed me up for is looking doable!
Hope me quoting a post on LetsRun about the XC Nationals course doesn't piss you guys off .... speaks to the fact that I thought the course was a minute long. This guy thinks it is a 10,300 meter 10K. Sounds about right to me.
"I coach a local club out here.We had a good rain overnight will make the course sloppy, but the drought is so severe that if this stops between now and race day, the course will absorb some of this. Bring a variety of spike choices, even large lugs might work if it is not too wet, i.e. Inov8 195 if you have an old pair.
Couple of things to watch for - it's a little hard to stay in rhythm on this particular course:Start is almost a half-mile above the finish.
First 200 meters - slight downhill on lumpy grass (Hellman's Hollow).The lower dirt path parallels JFK drive is rocky - about 700 meters. You run that twice. Also crosses two asphalt intersections, about 15 meters each, so you gimp through that in spikes.Bottleneck at the bottom of the rocky part, where you make a sharp left and wind back up. Pretty sandy in 50-meter spots down there, single-track and blind turns. Watch it a bit there.Lower grass meadow is Speedway meadow, some gopher holes to watch for and tends to get muddier than the upper meadow. Then another climb up a hill with some turns to the bottom of the Polo Fields - an old 3/4 mile groomed horse racing track. Polo Fields, flat and fast smooth dirt.Loop takes you to top of upper meadow - open women go once, open men go twice.Both courses were lengthened. Open men is about 10300 meters and open women seem to be running about 6150+ meters.When you feed onto the Polo Fields for the final run, it's something like 900-1000 meters to the finish. When you get around the final turn, close to 300 meters remain. Long straight-away finish."
Read more:http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6901581#ixzz3twgJtDRt
What a day to race! We got a nice break in the weather yesterday. It rained on Friday and supposed to rain today, Sunday but yesterday was VERY nice with temps in the low 50's and mostly sunny. The rain left parts of the course a little sloppy but not bad and I've raced there when it was much worse. I ended up running 41:08 and finishing 98/134 50-54. There were 416 guys in the Masters race and more than that in the Open A race which was won by Garret Heath. Alan Webb ran and looked good but finished well back in the pack. I also saw Nick Symmonds making the rounds before the Open race and talking to people, very approachable guy. Kevin Castille won the Masters race going away, man is he a great looking runner.
My wife went with me and took a bunch of photos of the various races, I'll post a link to her photos after she filters the good from the bad. In the meantime .... enjoy this teaser!
Link added: https://picasaweb.google.com/114246538355527661386/2015USATFXCNationalChampinships
Sounds like a great experience Ken. Well done.
I've been trying to sell the local team on Tallahassee next year. It would be an awesome experience. After having watched NXN and Footlocker (and run the old dude race at Footlocker) it is a blast to run XC.
Very cool.. and great photos.
Sunday the weather was terrible. Hard to imagine it was that nice in SF for the race. Im super jealous Ken.
Nice run Ken, under the goal time on a longer course.
I was a DNF for the Ugly Sweater run, kids' swim meet took precedence.
Hey life happens Happyfeet! I went though the same thing when my kids were young.
I have to 'fess up here .... they fixed the long course problem for the Championships! It was dead on at 10km this time so my 'improvement' was pretty much all due to the course being the correct length this time. Still very happy though.